Friends of NMS

Photo by John Saponara

New York City, April 2008

Dear Fellow Patron of the Arts,

The contribution our Italian ancestors made to the arts weaves a rich and colorful story.

One chapter I find particularly inspirational is that of the Neapolitan composers who lived and worked most of the time in Naples, Italy, but also across Europe for German, Austrian, French, Spanish kings and nobles, and even for Tsarina Catherine of Russia, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

These innovative maestros introduced new elements to the classical music, even adopting a unique notation system to communicate their progressive ideas with performers of the day. While their musical contributions had a profound and lasting impact on the evolution of classical form, their scoring methods were not widely adopted, and eventually these brilliant compositions were dropped from the performance repertoire in favor of those written in a more formal style of that time. As a result, an enormous amount of masterpieces composed by Neapolitan Masters were relegated to library archives across Europe.

Photo by John Saponara

Fortunately, the nonprofit Neapolitan Music Society - NMS led by Maestro Gioacchino Longobardi have worked tirelessly to break over two hundred years of silence by reintroducing these forgotten Italian treasures.

The performance on April 13^th, 2008 by NMS - Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra, at New York University - Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, marked a world premiere event that included several program selections performed in The United States of America for the very first time.

I am delighted to join you in supporting Neapolitan Music Society, a historically significant organization, thanks to Maestro Gioacchino Longobardi.

Sincerely yours,

Matilda Raffa Cuomo